Whispering Farms Montessori Academy

If you are thinking of enrolling your child, think twice. I enrolled my son and he truly enjoyed his class (Beginners). Unfortunately, the school is a fraud.
1. This school is NOT a Montessori, it has only two teachers who were educated in the Montessori philosophy. The owner runs the place like a daycare, which is fine… if that is what you tell people you are doing.
2. The owner is a vile woman. I brought my son to school with a rash, which was neither contagious nor dangerous (he had no fever and the rash did not itch; he has sensitive skin, poor kid). The rash did not look nice and so I was called to the school to remove my son from class (for the protection of the other kids). That would have been okay had the owner hung up the phone after leaving that on my voicemail. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t hang the phone up completely and I was able to hear her gossiping about what a crappy mother I was because I dumped my kid with her instead of watching him until the rash went away. When confronted about her gossip, she tried to deny it. So I played the recording of her gossiping back to her. She was embarrassed. Instead of turning things around, she proceeded to make things worse with her poor attitude. I believe her excuse (months later when we pulled our kid from her school) was that she let her ego get the best of her…
After that incident, I started to pay closer attention to how she interacted with the kids, the teachers, and the parents. She was rude and yelled at the teachers and made decisions based solely on money (not a shocker, but not what I want for my son). Case in point: a kid in my son’s class bit several kids (I believe in one month she bit over 10 times). She was not removed from the school. Instead, the kid was advanced into the Transition class (instead of older and more mature kids). The owners’ reason for doing so? The older kids could tell the biter «no».
Bottom line: you are entrusting your child to strangers and hope that they are doing all they promise to educate them and keep them safe. After seven months at this fake Montessori I found that the owner was not trustworthy and I did not want my child in her care.

WFMA has been an amazing place for our kids – they were each reading easily and well at four years old and continue to read many levels higher than their current grade. Our youngest child attended as a full time student during his pre-​k year and the semester preceding it, and his older brother attended after school each day during that time while I attended school full time. Now he and his older brother ride the Montessori’s van and continue to attend after the elementary school day ends. During the summer there is a full program which even includes splash days and field trips to keep the learning going. The staff are all friendly and welcoming and go above and beyond every day to ensure the safety and quality of education for each individual child. The director, Kiran Rai, maintains excellent communication between families and staff, and has always been available to assist us on an individual basis when the need arose. The electronic fingerprint ID check-​in/​sign-​out program is another measure WFMA implements for security and added peace of mind for caregivers. We have been so fortunate to have our kids at WFMA and highly recommend it to other families looking for the perfect Montessori experience.

I enrolled my three children (ages 7) into the Summer Program here this summer. It was a disappointing experience. I met with the owner/​director twice before making my decision to enroll the children. It was my goal that my children be engaged, entertained, challenged, and eager to attend the program Monday-​Friday. The owner gave me a packet detailing the summer curriculum and verbally confirmed there would be «Library Trips, Art Excursions, Gardening, Splash Days, Special visitors, Spanish, Music, and Movement.» During the first two weeks my children complained about how boring it was and I noticed that not one of these activities had started. I met with the owner and she stated, «I have been busy with out-​of town guests, but I am planning some fun activities for the children. We will take them on a field trip to get yogurt. We will take them to the new park in town. I am going to book some special visitors to bring in some animals or something of that sort.» NONE of these ever occurred. The children had one library trip and one splash day every other week. There were no Art Excursions, Special Visitors, Spanish, Music, or Movement. There was no field trip for yogurt or field trip to the park. There were no interesting art projects brought home by the children; they brought home work sheets. When picked up at the end of the day they were usually watching TV or coloring. To top it off, my son was pushed down by an older child and was crying about his arm hurting. They gave him an ice pack. When he was picked up no one even mentioned his injury or had us sign anything regarding this. He continued to whine over the next 36 hours. I took him to the ER and his arm was broken! I reported it to the school and the director never acknowledged the incident nor did she report it as required by law. I wouldn’t send any child to this school. It was expensive and didn’t deliver the activities as promised.